Goodnight, Old Friend
by DecemberWildfire
Summary: Grovyle and Hero reunite in the renewed future, after Grovyle travels across the world to learn more about the cause of the Temporal crisis, as well as the new timeline he's living in. (Also ft. Celebi, Dusknoir, and some PSMD characters) (**PMD spoilers)
1. In the Future of Light

A/N: Yes, I FINALLY got around to playing Explorers. Please excuse my 10-year lateness.

This takes place about 4-5 months after the Temporal Crisis in Grovyle's timeline, and 10 years after the events in Hero's timeline.

* * *

*Pant* *pant*

 _Just a little more…_

*Pant* *pant* *pant*

 _Any time now..._

"Oh! I see the stairs! Up ahead!"

*Flash*

" _Finally_ we're out! Hah… hah… man, that dungeon was a _hike._ "

"Thank you both so much for rescuing me! I know this isn't much, but I want you to have this Pure Seed."

The grateful Sandshrew handed the seed to the two Pokemon in front of her.

"It was no problem!" one of them chimed. "This is what we're here for."

"Who knew that an Eevee and a Mudkip could get through a forest full of strong grass types so easily?"

"Oh, it was nothing. We've been through worse."

"Well, I'd better head home. Thanks again, Dana and Mudkip."

The ground type scurried off into the distance. They were about to do the same, as they were a bit far from Treasure Town and the sun was starting to set.

"So what do you wanna do now?" Mudkip asked his partner.

"Should we go check on the progress of our house on the way back to town?"

"I actually went by there this morning. The guys said it should only be a few more days, and then it'll be ready for move-in!"

"Oh, awesome! That's good to know."

"Yeah, and with that storm we got last night… I'm just really glad the guild is letting us stay with them until the house is done. I'll always love the bluff, but during thunderstorms it's a different story…"

"Definitely. Well, I guess we should start heading back. I found enough perfect apples to keep Wigglytuff happy for a very long time."

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*Flap* *flap*

The delivery Pelipper floated down onto the grate at the guild's entrance.

"Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!"

"Whose footprint?"

"The footprint is Pelipper's!"

"ENTER!"

He proceeded into the building and descended to the ground floor, dropping off some mail to Wigglytuff at his office.

"YOOM...TAH! Thanks a bunch, friend~!"

"Always a pleasure, sir."

The pelican started to flap off again, before being held up by the confused guildmaster.

"Um… friend? What might _this_ be?"

He held out an old, beat up notebook of some sort. It looked like a journal.

"Oh, that? I'm not sure where it came from. Somebody dropped it off at the post office the other day, saying belongs to Miss Dana. Her name's written inside."

"Okie dokie! I'll make sure she gets it!"

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Five months had passed since they had seen their first sunrise in their own timeline.

After time's restoration and Primal Dialga's defeat, Grovyle, Celebi and Dusknoir had settled in a small town called Capim. It had originally been an unfamiliar place to them, but nevertheless it was where they ended up. After they climbed down from Vast Ice Mountain and journeyed onward, things seemed… normal; as if they knew what normal was.

Grovyle and Dusknoir had gotten a glimpse of this world from their visit to the past, but it still felt strange that even in their own timeline, it almost seemed as if this is how it _always_ was. Pokemon strolling around, going about their business, making friendly chitchat with one another… although now, technically that _was_ how it's always been. The dark times they remembered no longer existed. It _never_ existed.

Eventually, the trio had collapsed from exhaustion after that battle and all the traveling. They were found by a Chansey and brought to her clinic in Capim Town. And there they remained, helping out around the town where they could and slowly adjusting to their new world.

No one knew who they really were or where they came from, at least in that town. And they sort of wanted to keep it that way.

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It had been a long day of missions.

Dana left the dinner table early that night and retreated to the guest room. It's not that she wasn't enjoying the company of the others. She just felt… drained. Wanted to recharge. After all, she was by far the least extroverted of the group.

When she entered the room, she noticed something sitting on her bed.

This object seemed… _oddly_ familiar. But why?

She sat down and picked the notebook up. It had definitely seen better days, from the looks of it. She flipped open the front cover.

 _Dana's Journal_ was written on the inside of the cover.

 _I've... never had a journal…? Unless…_

The confused Eevee flipped to a random page, and found an entry dated from almost 11 years ago.

 _Today was rough. We were on the run since morning. I almost got sliced up by a nasty scratch attack towards the end, but Grovyle jumped in front of me, just in time. But all the struggle was worth it! Being chased by Dusknoir's lackeys led us to hide out in a cave for what felt like forever, but we found proof that there really was a time gear in Treeshroud Forest! Now we just need to find out where the last one was, and then-"_

Suddenly, she felt a sharp, searing pain in her head. She had to lie on the floor and clutch her head with her paws. She hadn't had one of these headaches in almost a decade… and she very well knew what was about to happen.

*Flash*

~.~.~

 _*Pant* *pant*_

 _The human female and the wood gecko had been running for miles, until finally finding a hidden cave to take refuge in._

 _Dana was exhausted, though she felt bad that her friend was the one with all the injuries._

" _Well..." she managed, sitting down and catching her breath. "That was successful, right? Once we find the last time gear location, we can finally go to the past and get going with this. I mean, that's all we have to do before Celebi can send us there, right?"_

" _That's right. We're getting close. We can't afford to sacrifice our concentration now."_

 _The human looked down at her friend's arm, where the scratch attack hit. Blood was dripping down._

" _Here, let me do something about that…"_

 _Dana dug through her backpack and pulled out some bandages, wrapping them around Grovyle's arm._

" _I'm sorry this keeps happening… it's my fault."_

" _Don't worry about it. It's not your fault that you're not a Pokemon and are unable to fight back like one. You know by now that this doesn't bother me."_

" _Heh… maybe if I_ was _a Pokemon, your life would be a lot easier," she teased._

" _You as a Pokemon… like_ that _could ever happen..."_

 _She finished bandaging him up and leaned against the wall; the two of them looking outside the cave._

" _You know what I really want to do?" she asked, slouching down further._

" _What's that?"_

" _I want to go on adventure… even just a small one… but just for the fun of it. Not because of our mission and not fearing for my life the whole time. Just for fun. Maybe, when we go to the past… we can give it a try? I mean, I know we'll be a bit crunched for time with our mission, but-"_

" _Dana, you know as well as I do that we can't let anything get in our way with this. Not even small time delays."_

" _I know, but… if we end up doing well and are good on time, maybe we can take a break and go on a small hike or something. I really want to see all the views and colors. Maybe even after we're finished... right before we disappear?"_

 _She turned to him and made a pouty face._

" _Please?"_

 _He couldn't help but smile at his friend._

" _I suppose we can at least consider it when we get there."_

 _She got all smiley and excited._

" _BUT," he continued, "_ only _if we have enough time to spare. We need to stay focused."_

 _She hugged her friend._

" _Thank you…"_

~.~.~

The Eevee flipped back to the beginning of the journal and kept reading; getting a flashback for each entry. How she met Grovyle, how they became friends, how he risked his life for her constantly…

 _Her head felt like it was going to explode, when suddenly..._

*Flash*

~.~.~

"Dana?"

Mudkip peeked his head into the room. "Are you okay?"

"I… I…"

She trembled as she spoke. The concerned mud fish walked up and put a hand on her back, taking notice of the journal in her hands.

"I remember him…"

"Who?"

"My… _best friend_ …"

"Your best friend...? Who..."

" _Grovyle_..."

Tears spilled onto the journal's cover.

Mudkip's eyes widened. Partly due to shock, and partly due to the painful jab from that "best friend" remark. But he tried to ignore that.

"You remember?! After all this time? How? Was it… your dimensional scream? Does that even work anymore?"

"Yes, it was. This was my journal, from when I was a human. I don't know how it got here or how it still exists, but…"

The small Eevee proceeded to sob into her paws.

"And now... he's gone…"

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"Celebi, did you bring in the berries for today?"

The pink fairy turned to her gecko friend and shook her head.

"Not yet. I was going to do that later. Chansey needed my help here today."

"Well, we need to hurry up. Kecleon is panicking that he won't have enough in stock. Can you head out soon? Or now? I have multiple rescue missions to attend to."

She rolled her eyes, but in the friendliest of ways. Same old Grovyle. Still so hasty and impatient. Although, he had gotten much better over the last few months in that regard, now that he wasn't dealing with world crises.

The only downside was that she didn't see him very much anymore. And she missed him, try as she might to hide that.

"No need to get so worked up, my dear Grovyle," she teased. "I'll get it done. You just go and enjoy your explorations."

He simply sighed and nodded before heading out the door.

On the way out to the first dungeon, he caught sight of Dusknoir, lying in the grass by a ledge and staring up at the sky like he always did.

It had been the hardest by far for their ghost friend to adjust to their new world. He was still dealing with guilt; not that anyone in that town knew about any of his past wrongdoings other than his two friends, but still. But even more so, he was struggling to find real purpose, as he had never known a life outside of being Dialga's servant.

The gecko figured he'd catch him later. He hastily headed into the dungeon.

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It wasn't too often that Pokemon who needed to be rescued from dungeons needed medical attention; they usually would just get lost or run out of items. But sometimes it's a different story.

One bright and early morning, Grovyle had gone out to rescue a very injured Pachirisu, carrying her on his back all the way through the dungeon and back to Chansey's clinic.

As he was entering the building, a small Chikorita bumped into him.

"Oh! Sorry!" she exclaimed, relieved not to have knocked him over.

"Humph. It's fine. But please watch where you're going."

She looked up at the injured squirrel on his back.

"Oh, is that the Pachirisu who sent out the rescue request this morning?"

"Yes. I really need to get her to the doctor."

"Of course, no problem!"

Without another thought, he rushed into the clinic and gave her to Chansey, who calmly reassured him that she would be fine and there's no need to worry. He thanked the doc and headed back out.

He was surprised to find the Chikorita still waiting for him outside when he exited the building. She looked very young; definitely a school-aged child. She simply smiled up at him.

"Did you need something?" he asked.

"Nope."

"Well, what do you want?"

"It's just cool to meet other explorers, ya know? I was actually gonna take that mission and that's why I came over here, but I'm glad someone got to her sooner, with her condition and all."

She paused and walked closer to him, still holding that friendly smile.

"I'm Heather, and I'm a member of the Expedition Society."

"Well met. I'm Grovyle," he replied. "Might I ask, what is the 'Expedition Society'?"

"It's basically a guild that's based in Lively Town. We all go on different missions, like rescues, explorations, finding lost items, bandit chases, you name it."

"Interesting… I didn't know guilds still existed. Well, it was nice meeting you, but I need to get going. There might be more Pokemon like Pachirisu out there who need rescuing."

"Oh, I'm headed to the bulletin board too! I'll walk with you!"

"Erm… okay?"

 _This child sure is… social._

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The two grass types were browsing the bulletin board, only to find that there were no urgent requests posted.

Heather turned to Grovyle, who still looked so serious. He reminded her of her partner's father in a way, and it made her smile.

"So how long have you lived here?" she asked.

 _How long…? Hmm. Measuring time is still a strange thing._

"I believe we've been here for about five months now," he said.

"Who's _we_?"

"Two of my friends came here with me. We try to help out around town wherever assistance is needed while we're here, but lately I've just been going off as a solo explorer."

"Where did you guys come from?"

"It's… a long story."

She tilted her head. "How can the name of the place you came from be a long story?"

"Just believe me. I'd really appreciate it if you didn't push it."

"Okay then… sorry… Mr. Serious..."

Although Grovyle was feeling mildly annoyed with this kid initially, he suddenly felt himself smile. This immediately confused the child.

"...Is something funny?"

"You just remind me of… an old friend of mine."

"Oh yeah? Who was this friend of yours? What was their name?"

He didn't respond.

"Um… is something the matter?"

"It's just that… the last time I was asked that question, we were… well… ugh, never mind."

 _We were about to be killed and I had nearly given up hope in that moment. That was the last time I was asked that question._

Heather wasn't following. She just sat there in confusion as they shared a long moment of silence.

 _But there's no reason to dwell on that now. This kid had nothing to do with it._

"...Her name was Dana."

"Dana? Oh, I know someone with that name. She's an Eevee. She used to be a human, just like I was."

Grovyle's eyes widened as he jumped back in shock. "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!"

"Whoa, buddy… what's wrong? Was it the human comment? Sorry, I just figured most folks kinda knew about that by now…"

"You said she's an Eevee, and formerly a human… does she have a partner named Mudkip? Team Passerby?"

"Yep, that's right!"

 _No way. There's_ no way _this could be the same Dana… our timelines were too far apart for her to still be here. Weren't they...?_

He tried to catch his breath and remain civil.

"So you know her?"

"Yeah! She's my friend. She told me all about the Temporal Crisis and how they saved time. It sounded crazy to me at first, but to be honest, some of the things I've seen and been through probably sound pretty crazy too."

It took a moment for her to suddenly realize something.

"Wait… so that means you're _the_ Grovyle! It's such a honor to meet you! Oh man, Dana's gonna _flip_ when she finds out you're here!"

"But how is she still around? ...Exactly how many years has it been since the Temporal Crisis?"

 _At least she knows about the Temporal Crisis and he wouldn't have to explain it to her._

"According to Ampharos and Mawile, it's been about 10 years."

" _10 years?!_ " he shrieked. "Are you kidding? That's impossible! I lived far longer than that in the former timeline, and it was always in the state of paralysis. That's the only life I ever knew."

"Hmm. Well, I don't know much about all of that. If you want, you could come with me to the Water Continent and ask Ampharos? He should be able to explain things. He and Mawile did a lot of investigation on it several years back."

"The Water Continent? Where is that?"

"It's north of here; a few hours away by the Lapras Liner. I have a pass that I can use for both of us."

"Well… I suppose if it will help me get more information…"

"And then later, maybe we could go to Treasure Town and you can see Dana? It's on the other side of this continent. Still takes a few hours to get there on Lapras though."

 _Can this really be…?_

"Yeah… if what you say is true, then you'll have my gratitude if you can help me get there."

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Celebi was leaving Kangaskhan's cafe when she saw Grovyle and a stranger heading her way. It was unusual to see him in town at this time of day, and not running around and taking on a million tasks.

"Hey, you!" she greeted. "Are you already finished exploring for the day? And... who's your new friend?"

"I'm Heather. Pleasure to meet you, ma'am! I've never met a shiny Pokemon before!"

"Celebi, can we have a quick word with you?" Grovyle asked.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"This kid tells me that we can learn a lot more about our past, and even our present, from her guildmaster on the Water Continent."

"My chief, Ampharos," Heather cut in. "He knows who you guys are and all about what happened with Temporal Tower."

"Is that so?" her eyes widened with intrigue. "Can we meet this Mr. Ampharos?"

"Yeah, that's what I was just telling Grovyle. I can take you all there on the Lapras Liner, if you want."

"And there's more…" Grovyle began.

"More?"

"Heather here is apparently… a friend of Dana's."

The fairy jumped back and her eyes somehow got bigger than they already were.

"What?! She's still alive? In _this_ time?"

"We're both members of each other's teams," Heather said. "We've been friends for a while now. I can take you both to her after Lively Town. I think it would be better to get things cleared up for you first so there's no confusion."

"I'd love to go!" Celebi replied. "We should bring Dusknoir too. I'm sure he'd like to learn more about all of this."

"Wait, did you say _Dusknoir_? Dana and Mudkip told me he was an enemy who tried to eliminate you all…"

"Well, he was. But he came around in the end and was a huge help to us in defeating Primal Dialga. And now he's a friend of ours, even though he's a bit standoffish at times."

"Oh, I see…"

Heather turned to Grovyle. "What do you think? Should we bring him too?"

"I think we should at least ask. It wouldn't be right to leave him out of this."

"He's probably over by his usual ledge," Celebi said. "Let's go find him."

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Sure enough, the ghost was floating over at his ledge, staring out at the ocean and deep in thought.

"Dusknoir?" Celebi mumbled, as the three slowly approached him.

He closed his eye for a moment and exhaled deeply, as if coming out of some deep trance. Then proceeded to calmly turn around.

"Celebi. Grovyle."

"We wanted to ask you something."

"What?"

"Well, Heather here…" she pointed and the small leaf head next to her, "... she knows who we are and where we came from. And she says she can take us to someone who can tell us a lot about what really happened with the Temporal Crisis, and even about the time we're living in. We just wanted to see if you wanted to come with us?"

The ghost just stared at her for a moment without a word. They knew that he was not one to ever go blank or space out even for a minute. But in that brief moment, he definitely looked blank.

"No."

He turned back and continued looking out.

"Umm… why not?" Celebi asked.

"Please leave me be."

Celebi turned to Grovyle, giving him a look that said "say something."

The gecko let out a sigh and stepped closer.

"No one's going to judge you, Dusknoir, if that's what you're concerned about. No one else even knows about us besides this kid and her guildmaster. Don't you want to learn more about this new world we're living in? See new places?"

"Enough!" he retorted in a cold tone. "Just go without me."

"You know the planet's paralysis only lasted 10 years?" Heather finally spoke. This caused the ghost to spin back around.

"What?! That's rubbish!"

"It's true! Team Passerby and everyone else you guys met when you traveled to the past are still around."

"Did no one ever teach you that it's wrong to lie to your elders?"

"You'll believe me if you come along. What's the worst that could happen?"

"I don't need to have someone tell me about how I was responsible for making the planet's paralysis last as long as it did. I already know this."

"It wasn't your fault. If you come with us, I think you might be surprised at what you find out."

"What are you saying, child?"

"I'm saying that my boss and his assistant discovered things about the planet's paralysis that no one knew even when they were living in it. I really think you should come talk to him, because he knows way more than I do. And I'm not very good at explaining things."

He let out a heavy, loud sigh.

"We'll meet you at the dock in an hour if you decide to come," she said.

The three left the conflicted ghost to his lonesome as requested and went to make preparations for the trip.

"He's kind of intimidating…" Heather whispered.

"Aw, don't let him scare you," Celebi said. "He can be a little grumpy some days, but he's a real softie deep down. Trust me on that."

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"And so nobody else knows about you guys or the Temporal Crisis besides certain folks in Treasure Town and the Expedition Society," Heather said. "Wigglytuff ordered that it be kept that way, because sharing that information with the world would just freak people out. Or everyone would think we're crazy."

"That makes sense. It probably is for the best," Celebi said.

They were almost halfway to Lively town; only a couple more hours to go.

Dusknoir had joined them at the last minute, as his two friends thought he would. They knew he couldn't turn down an opportunity to gain more knowledge.

Heather had started trying to converse with him after a while, remembering what Celebi had said.

"So I told Grovyle that we could go to Treasure Town after this, if you two wanted to join?"

"Count me out," the ghost replied.

"You don't think everyone will be mad, do you? If you want, I can go ahead of time and explain everything-"

"Don't bother. There's no reason for me to return there in the first place, even if everyone were to disregard my wrongdoings."

"Well, from what I've heard, you were quite beloved and adored by all of them during your visit to Treasure Town. Is that right?"

"Doesn't matter. It was meaningless. I was merely putting on an act in order to manipulate them."

"Well… you could _be_ that person now, if you wanted to. And you could make it real this time."

The look in his eye was _oh so_ familiar to the young Chikorita. She saw it all the time in the eyes of someone close to her.

"You haven't forgiven yourself..." she muttered.

"I know that I can never atone for what I did to them, so I'm trying to start over. Somewhere else, far away from there."

"I'm sure they would give you a second chance. I mean, that's what I would do."

"Humph. Sure."

"I'm _all_ about second chances. My dad... er… my adoptive dad, was once… well, um… you know what, never mind. It's a long story. Point is, I know about your past and I have nothing against you, and I'm sure the others don't either. You did help save our world in the end, after all."

He didn't say another word the rest of the ride. Celebi eventually felt the need to break the silence.

"Thanks again for doing this for us! We really owe you one!"

"It's my pleasure! I'm really happy I got to meet you guys!"

"I have a question…" Grovyle said, finally turning away from the ocean view to face them.

"Yeah?"

"You seem to be very self-sufficient for your age, but I'm still curious… how does a child so young get accepted into a professional guild?"

"Kids usually aren't allowed to join, but Ampharos made an exception for my partner and me."

"Why would he do that?"

"You know… to this day I'm not really sure, other than the fact that we had met him previously, before we knew who he was. He sort of took a liking to us. I think he appreciated my partner's passion and enthusiasm for explorations. I really take after him now, actually. Believe it or not, I used to be really shy and quiet before we were partners."

"I see."

He paused for a second, remembering something she had told him earlier.

"You said you used to be a human, right?"

"Yeah, I was. It's a long story, but my partner and me actually did some intense world-saving of our own a while back."

"Is that so?" Celebi asked. "Would you mind sharing that story?"

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Lively Town was… well, lively. Several folks were running around from all different directions, and a group was singing in the square for no reason other than that they were just naturally cheerful and happy to be alive.

Heather led the trio into the large building and into Ampharos' office.

"Hey Chief!"

The tall sheep spun around and made himself dizzy, wobbling a bit as he got up to greet them.

"Greetings, Heather…" the dizzy man said.

"Do you have some time to talk?"

"Absolutely. Who are your friends?"

He gathered himself and stood upright.

"Chief, surely you're familiar with the heroes from the dark past, right?" she winked. "There are actually three of them!"

Ampharos tilted his head in confusion, before suddenly snapping into realization.

"Wait… do you mean to tell me… these three are…"

"Yeah! These are the three who helped to save time in the future! Well… the present, I should say. This is the Grovyle who worked with Dana and Mudkip."

"Well! My, my, my! What an honor it is to be in the presence of such noble warriors! Perhaps I should formally introduce myself. I am…"

*Pose*

"Ampharos, the Dashing Wanderer!"

Sweat drops rolled down their heads.

"Oh yeah," Heather whispered to the trio. "Forgot to mention he does that a lot."

"What brings you all here?"

"They had some questions for you," Heather said. "About the whole timeline paradox and all. You told me that you and Mawile spent many years researching it, right?"

"Ah, yes. Well, I'm afraid we weren't able to learn everything or understand as much as we had originally hoped, but I like to believe I've become rather knowledgeable. What questions did you have?"

Heather excused herself and left the trio to the chief.

"Well, I guess to start…" Grovyle began, "Heather told us that the Temporal crisis happened only 10 years ago. And while time is still a relatively new concept for us, that still screams false to me. I was born in the former future and only ever knew that world of darkness, and I lived there for far more than 10 years before going to the past to prevent the tower's collapse. So how is that possible?"

"I see. Well, um… how shall I put this?"

Ampharos cleared his throat.

"This may come as an unsavory bit of news to you three… but what we had discovered was, in that former time period of yours, anyone who had any memory of the world when time flowed… had those memories wiped after Temporal Tower collapsed."

"Wh-WHAT?!"

The three jumped back in shock.

"Yes. You all still retained memory of basic things, such as daily functions, but anything related to the flow of time and the world of peace was blocked out. And so it would have seemed that all you had known was that time of darkness, which lasted 10 years. For instance, try to think of a time longer than a decade ago, and see if you can remember anything really specific. Do you remember waking up in the mornings? Or what you did during the day when the sun was up?"

The three stood in silence for a few minutes, racking their brains to try and remember such things… but they couldn't do it. It was true. All they could remember was being alive, and certain hard times; darker times. Some memories from nighttimes, if that. But everything felt so… foggy. Vague.

"...How is this possible? Why would the standstill of time result in memory loss?" Dusknoir asked.

"That, I'm afraid, is something we were never able to figure out. But overall, we know that when time had stopped, it had a strong and deeply negative impact on everyone's minds. There are theories that the clouding of memories was Darkrai's doing. I've actually had conversations with Dialga personally, and he's not quite sure of the cause himself, but supposes that this theory is reasonable enough."

"Who's Darkrai?" Grovyle asked.

The sheep's eyes widened.

"You mean… you don't know?"

"Know what?"

He took a deep breath.

"Well, to put it simply… Darkrai was a legendary fellow who conspired the entire thing. He caused Temporal Tower to collapse, so that he could live in a world of darkness. He felt powerful that way. And that's not all; once you and the others managed to save time, he tried going after space instead. He attempted to manipulate Palkia into eliminating your two friends from Team Passerby. But fear not: he was defeated and had all of his memories wiped, so there's no need to worry about him anymore."

"...Wh-WHAT?!"

The three stood frozen for a moment. So much to take in. _Too_ much.

Grovyle felt an intense heat run across his face and down the rest of his body. He was furious.

 _I always thought the collapse was from a natural cause. That it was nobody's fault. But no. It was a conspiracy. A conspiracy by a sadistic, selfish son of a…!_

"There's one more thing you should know," Ampharos said nervously as he turned to Grovyle.

"There's _more_? More than _THAT_?"

"I've worked with your friend Dana over the years, as she and Mudkip were instrumental in our acquisition of information. I just want to let you know… the reason she lost all of her memories… was because Darkrai attacked the portal while you two were time traveling. You made it out safely because she shielded you from the attack, and in the process was turned into a Pokemon. Palkia ended up doing the same thing to Darkrai in the end; smashing a portal that he had entered. Ironic, I must say. So rest assured, although no one knows where he is, he's no longer a threat. I just thought you should know…"

Grovyle stared at the ground for a very long moment. Not saying a word. Not even blinking. So much shock, anger, nausea… he didn't know what to do with it all.

"...Grovyle?" Celebi asked, worried.

"I need some air," he finally managed, as he turned around and swiftly exited the building.

"I… think I'd better follow him…"

She flew out the door. Dusknoir turned back to the chief.

"If you don't mind… I have several more questions for clarification."

Ampharos posed.

"Ask away!"

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Lively town had a pretty long stretch of a shoreline that not too many folks hung out at. Grovyle walked along the shore for what felt like the longest time, just wanting to be away from people and to mull everything over.

 _I remember my youth… I remember every year of my life. But… it's all shrouded in darkness. Of course I'm not going to remember every detail after so long, but… why is it that I can't remember_ anything _about time flowing before?! It doesn't make any sense!_

He eventually climbed up onto a ledge and sat down at the edge of it, staring out at the ocean. The sun was starting to set.

 _And Dana… oh, Dana. You deserved better than that. I swear, if I ever get my hands on that Darkrai…!_

He snapped out of his angry trance when he felt a gentle presence behind him. Surely enough, he turned to find his pink fairy friend levitating there, with a worried look on her face.

"I just… wanted to make sure you were okay…" she mumbled.

"I'll be fine. I just need time to process things."

"I'm sorry…"

He sighed, turning back towards the view again.

"You know…" she began, hovering closer to him, "Dana may have lost her memories, but… maybe if you go see her again, you can talk to her about your guys' past and all the times you shared. Maybe it'll help her remember. I mean, it's possible, right?"

"I doubt it. I've never heard of someone coming back after getting amnesia."

"Well… it's worth a shot, right? And besides, even if all fails... we know that she's happy now, being friends with Mudkip and going on adventures."

"Yeah. That's true. Those two make the best of combinations."

Celebi smiled and took a seat next to him on the ledge.

"So we should be happy too. Even you, my grumpy dear Grovyle. Tee-hee!"

She looked so cheerful. Like she didn't have a care in the world. He supposed that some things never change, and couldn't help but snicker.

"You're very odd, you know that?"

The two gazed out at the sunset for several long moments. Even though it had been months since time started flowing again, it still felt unreal to them, when looking at these kinds of views. For a moment Grovyle forgot about all of the confusing and frustrating news and just felt content.

"This is a really beautiful view," Celebi said after a moment.

Grovyle turned and fixed his gaze on her.

"Yeah. It is."

"It's been a while, hasn't it? Since we've watched a sunset or a sunrise together."

"I guess it has. The only other time was after we defeated Primal Dialga."

"Did I ever tell you…" she trailed off, starting to blush.

"Hmm?"

"Did I ever tell you… that watching the sunrise with you was... the best moment of my life?"

Well. _That_ was unexpected.

"Uh… no, you didn't."

She turned and smiled cheerfully at him once more; her blush not going away.

"Well, it was. I thought I was about to disappear, but even so, I had never been happier. What more could I ask for, than to spend my last moments with you, my dear Grovyle?"

Was it him, or was is starting to get a little hot out there? ...What was this? It was unfamiliar, whatever was going on.

"Well… I'm glad. If it means anything, I really enjoyed that moment too. You got to see the sun for the first time, and-"

He was cut off by the pink fairy suddenly moving close to him and giving him a side hug. A long one. Pretty much resting her head in his lap. The gecko was caught off guard and didn't know what to do.

"Thank you, my dear. Thank you for making this future possible. I'm so happy."

He slowly laid his arm back down around her.

"Heh… same here."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The next day, Grovyle and Heather rode Lapras back to the Grass Continent, Treasure Town bound. It would be a very long trip that would last almost all day, but travel time couldn't matter less to Grovyle. He wanted more than anything to see his friend again, regardless of the memory loss situation.

Dusknoir didn't want to be seen in Treasure Town for obvious reasons, so he stayed behind for the time being. Celebi felt bad and decided to stay with him, claiming that she wanted to explore the continent. Because she knows the ghost would never accept pity from anyone.

The Grass Continent was now in their view from Lapras, though it would still take a long time to get to the other side.

"Hey…" Heather said suddenly. "I know we're trying to get there as quickly as we can, but I need to make a really quick stop at Capim Town. I promised someone I'd deliver some items before sundown. Is that okay?"

"Sure. Do what you need to do, I guess."

"I'll be quick!"

In due time, Lapras pulled up to the dock. Grovyle was planning on just waiting there until she got back, since a delivery couldn't possibly take that long.

He just sat there, thinking. Pondering.

Soon he'd be reunited with Dana. Something he'd never thought possible. He wondered how she was doing. How Mudkip was doing. If they perhaps… knew that he was still alive. Or at least had any sort of feeling...

" _Dana! Mudkip! Can you hear me?! We are still alive!"_

He knew it was absurd to think that they had actually heard him that day. But still, he had this feeling… that maybe… _maybe…_

He suddenly snapped out of it when he looked up past the dock. Standing there was…

...

"...Dana…?"

The Eevee had tears rolling down as she ran up and basically jumped into his arms to hug him. This definitely took him by surprise. She had been so shy the last time they had met.

"Grovyle, I… I…"

"It's so good to see you again, Dana. Are you okay?"

"I remember you. I remember everything."

His eyes grew two sizes as he held the sobbing fox.

"You..."

"That old journal I used to keep," she said, gathering herself. "It found its way back to me, somehow. And even though I still don't remember every little thing about my past, I got dimensional scream visions when I read through it. I saw memories of everything I wrote about. And I remembered you. And I missed you so much. I thought you disappeared. I thought you were…"

"I know. It's miraculous, to say the least, that both of us are still here. And that you remember…"

It was an extremely rare sight, but Dana noticed her friend's eyes watering up.

"...I knew you'd be here," she said after a moment. "I came here to meet you. Heather told Dedenne to contact me through our connection orbs. I couldn't believe it, when she told me you were still alive. I thought she was playing a cruel joke on me at first, but I still came as quickly as I could. I'm so glad that-"

She was cut off as Grovyle set her down and stood up. He looked out to the distance for a moment, and then turned back and smiled at her.

"You know… I believe I still owe you the adventure of our own that you wanted. The adventure that's just for fun, with nothing to fear. Just us."

Her eyes sparkled.

"R-really?"

"Let's go."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The two pals had spent hours hiking up Friendly Meadow, catching up on life and talking about everything under the sun. On the top floor there was an area where they could rest and enjoy the view.

"Okay, but seriously, that time I almost got hit by that shadow ball was NOT my fault," Dana said. "Those Sableye had us cornered and we were out of items, so there was nothing I could do."

" _Please_ , you're just lucky I was fast enough to cover you… _all the time._ " he teased.

"Oh, whatever. Well either way, it all worked out, didn't it? I mean… all of it."

"Yeah. It did."

He leaned back against the rock and looked out for a moment, smiling. It was such a rare thing, for her to see him not only smile, but so… laid back and calm. It was so refreshing, even if she hadn't seen him in his former ways in over 10 years.

"You were so quirky back then," he spoke after a minute. "I'm… glad to see you're able to be yourself again."

"And you know, with all this time that's passed… we're basically the same age now," she said.

"Hmm… yeah. You're right."

"I can't believe I was only 16 when we first met… but I guess everybody had to grow up fast during that time we were living in."

"It's all in the past now."

"Well… technically not," she winked.

The sun had started to set. They figured it would be best to head back before it got too dark.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Hey, you guys!" Heather greeted as she saw the two coming back into town.

"Hey!" Dana shouted back.

"How was it? I'm sorry I had to lie to get us here, Grovyle. I just thought it would be cool to make it a surprise. And that it would save us a lot of travel time."

"No need to apologize. I really appreciate everything you've done. I owe you."

"I'm glad I bumped into you yesterday! Well hey, I need to get back to Lively Town, so I'll be heading back to the dock. Are you staying here, Dana?"

"I'll probably just come back tomorrow. I kind of… didn't tell Mudkip where I was going since I was so excited, so I should get back to Treasure Town so he doesn't freak out or send out search parties or anything. I'll meet you over there in a sec."

"Okay!"

The tiny Chikorita scurried off and Dana turned to Grovyle, who still looked happy. It was still such an unusual sight, but one she very much enjoyed.

"Thanks for today. For our adventure," she said.

"Don't mention it. I did basically promise you, after all. Or at least that we would try. You know that I'm not one to break my word."

She walked up and hugged him for a long moment.

"So, I'll be seeing you around then, right?" he asked.

"Yeah… yeah, you will. That's so cool to think about. We get to see each other… and hang out for fun without having to be on the run constantly. Who would've thought?!"

"We have Arceus to thank for that."

"Well… I guess I shouldn't keep Heather waiting."

"Sure thing. Say hello to Mudkip for me."

"Will do! And say hi to Celebi for me!"

He watched the cheerful fox run off to the docks. So energetic. Just like old times.

 _Goodnight, old friend. It's good to have you back._

She would probably never be a human again, nor would she remember _everything_ … but he had his friend back.

For good this time.

* * *

A/N: I regret waiting so long to play this game, but at the same time I don't cuz I don't think I would've appreciated it as much back in the day.

I freaking love this gecko man and am willing to fangirl with anyone if they want to. Because I pretty much missed out on the fandom since I'm so late.

I struggled to write this fic because all the timeline/time travel paradox stuff really trips me out and I have a hard time wrapping my brain around it. But I hope I made sense in the story anyways. Sorry if it didn't.

And sorry I'm so cheesy and obsessed with fluff.

In my headcanons, Super MD does take place in Grovyle's future since we see him and the other two. And since some of the others from the past, like guild members, Team Skull, etc. also make appearances, that tells me that the two time periods couldn't have been that far apart, since they're still alive and not old and wrinkly.

(Idc if they're just cameos. I'm going with it)

Btw I'm getting rusty at this whole writing thing and only do it every once in a while for the fun of it. So constructive feedback is welcome but I'm not really looking for it at this time.


	2. Epilogue

_Back at the Expedition Society…_

"There's something that I still don't quite understand…"

Ampharos tilted his head at the ghost. "Something else?"

"Regardless of our memory loss prior to the Tower's collapse, the fact remains that the three of us had started to disappear after time was restored. In fact, we _did_ disappear for a brief moment. How do you explain that?"

"Well-"

"I can answer that."

The two turned to the source of the voice, entering the room to join them.

"Who are you?" Dusknoir asked.

"I'm Mawile. Sorry to intrude, but I was in my office and couldn't help but overhear you guys. I did a lot of investigation on all of this along with the chief back in the day."

"Ah yes, Mawile here is our archaeologist," Ampharos said. "Please, go on, if you would be so kind."

"The chief told you about Darkrai, right? Well, my question for you is... where do you think he was all that time when Dana and Grovyle were in the past, trying to undo what he caused?"

"How do you expect me to answer that? I didn't even know of Darkrai until today."

"Surely the mastermind behind the whole ordeal wouldn't have just sat back and let his plan foil, right? He could've easily done what you did and gone after Grovyle to stop his mission. I was really curious about why he didn't do that since it would be so simple, so I looked into it, and…"

"And what?"

"There was more time travel, in addition to what you guys did. And there's another Celebi."

"Wh-What?!"

"Darkrai decided to be a little more crafty. Perhaps to give himself more of a challenge maybe, I don't know. The other Celebi has been friends with the chief for a long time, and so he was happy to fill us in on everything. To put it simply, Darkrai forced him to send him to the past. But not to the time period you three went to. He went further back, and found a way to get to… the parents. Your parents, Grovyle's parents, Dana's parents… and he redirected their paths in order to ensure that they would never meet. So that you guys were never born."

The ghost had gone pale. He was about to storm out of the building like Grovyle did because this was all _too much_.

"Darkrai is able to generate dimensional holes on his own," she continued. " But he needed Celebi's help to get to those specific time periods instead of ending up somewhere random. Celebi wanted to stop him, but he would've been easily overpowered. And Darkrai had threatened to eliminate all of his friends and loved ones if he ran away or interfered."

He thought in silence for a moment, not even blinking.

"If what you say is true…" he managed, "then why would he have gone after _my_ parents? I was essentially on his side, trying to preserve the future that _he_ wanted."

"It wasn't part of the original plan. He went and did that as soon as your heart changed and you joined forces with Grovyle and Celebi. He didn't waste a moment."

"You've got to be kidding me…"

"But hey, he failed, didn't he? Basically fell on his face when every single one of his plans were foiled."

"I need some air."

He turned away and started floating towards the main door.

"Hey," Mawile called after him. "If you go through the town's entry gate, there's a small forest that's good for calming the mind. And if you go through the dungeon beyond that, you'll come across a place called Serene Village. That's where I go sometimes when my mind needs a break, if that helps."

With that, he was off.

Mawile turned back to her chief. "He's still carrying a lot of guilt, isn't he?"

"Indeed. But he has a good heart. I'm certain of it. We happen to know a fellow like him, don't we? Four of them, in fact."

"Yeah… we do."

* * *

A/N: This little add-on wasn't originally part of the story. I realized a plot hole I established way after the fact and just wanted to address it. I know it's a bit of a stretch, but there it is.

Again, all the time travel stuff trips me out. ^^'


End file.
